Another crazy metropole

Another early morning and long day ahead of us.

It's busy in the breakfast area of the hotel. We're looking for a table that has a sign on it "I'm finished, please clean my table". When you enter the breakfast area with your meal voucher, you're given a two-sided plastic paper to indicate if you're still having breakfast or not. Quite handy as you don't need to worry about your table being occupied by someone else by the time you return from the breakfast buffet.

We find a spot, enjoy our breakfast and head back to our room to finish up our bags to leave Hiroshima. We check out using the electronic machines next to the reception desk and walk back on foot to the train station. By now we know which vending machines to look for and reserve our seats on the next shinkansen to Himeji. Yes, you read that right: not Osaka because we planned to make a brief stopover at Himeji to see the amazing castle.

Arriving on the platform we're greeted by a different kind of shinkansen train as usual: the Hello Kitty version. With a mixed sentiment of "why?" but also some childish excitement, we board the train and take our seats. First thing to do: look online for more information about this weirdly themed train. It turns out we're rather lucky to travel on this unique shinkansen. The entire first carriage is built as a store full of Hello Kitty stuff and a bar. The second compartment is a travel compartment, but entirely themed in Hello Kitty with even a photo stand. During our trip we can't resist having a look at what such a store looks like. It's Japan, so we can leave our stuff in our seats without fear and explore this pink colored bullet on tracks.

Having taken our mandatory picture with the famous cat, I start looking online for the location of lockers in Himeji station. Always handy if you know what you're aiming for when arriving on the platform rather than walking around like a clueless pigeon.
Of course, things go smoothly, and it doesn't take too long for us to store our bags. Next thing on the list: grab a coffee. No need to plan your coffee moment up front: as you've already read on this blog, Starbucks is all around! Obviously, there should be one in the station. We have to do some searching in the shopping center that is connected to the station but find it and start our morning routine.

From the train station, it's a straight walk down a boulevard to the castle. You can already see it from the moment you exit the station. Walking down the boulevard and having to wait a few times for the pedestrian traffic light to turn green, we notice how there's a different sound for the visually impaired for crossing the main street compared to the side streets. One sounds like a bird, the other like a Star Wars laser gun.
At the end of the street, we arrive at a moat and a nice wooden bridge that welcomes us to the castle.

Himeji Castle is huge. It's considered one of Japan's most prestigious and well-preserved castles. Contrary to many other castles, this one was never destroyed by fire or a tsunami making it rather unique. We buy our entry tickets and walk along the many rooms and corridors that this castle has to offer. On old drawings we see the sheer size of the castle grounds long ago. The castle grounds reached all the way up to the train station. The city had to compromise on what to keep and protect and which section to relinquish and use for modern facilitations.

During our visit we walk on the original wooden floors and read many stories about the emperors who lived here. As per Japanese tradition, we have to carry our shoes with us in a plastic bag to protect the floor. I actually like this habit of removing shoes, not only does it protect the structure, but it also gives an odd sense of liberty and respect.

The main keep is impressive. As you climb the gigantic wood-structured building, you read about the use of each floor and the weapon and defense mechanisms they used. It must have been incredibly hard to conquer such a castle. In Europe we had a moat and a stone castle, but nothing to the size of the castle and inner walls of these Japanese countries! In our defense, stone is less prone to fire...

It's around 2PM when we head back to the train station and whilst waiting for our next bullet train to take us to Osaka, we buy something in a Seven Eleven store and eat it on a bench just outside the station. Once more, we notice how clean, modern, and comfy it is to sit here. A spotless bench, a tree next to us with no garbage near the base. On the ground around us not a single cigarette bud to be found. We realize how much we'll miss this when we get back home.

A few moments later, we arrive at our last stop for this journey: Osaka. Another great metropole with its own vibrance and food.

Exiting the train section of the station we head "down under" for the subway to take us to the hotel. When we exit the subway station at the exit closest to our hotel, we get for the first time a glimpse of what Osaka looks like. And... well... the first impression is a bit weird as just across the street is a tall pink hotel all decorated with sweets, cookies and pie. Welcome back to the madness of a big city!

After checking in and dropping off our bags, we head back on the streets to discover some of the city highlights in the vicinity of the hotel. We're already a bit tired, but our planning doesn't allow things to simply be moved to another day. And we're not coming back here soon, so there's no choice: out we go!

First stop is Namba Parks: a shopping complex that has special architecture that resembles a canyon and a park on top. Not really knowing what to expect, we set off in the general direction of the park. From across the street, it doesn't seem like a spectacular or large place. However, once we're "inside" it actually is a beautiful work of art! We start by walking down below in the canyon and appreciate the curves and architecture. At the end we take the elevator to the top floor and walk back through the many parks and peaceful areas. There even is a little grass field where you can come and chill out. Read a book and enjoy the peace and quiet. There are cozy bars too! On the many floors separating the roof from the ground floor are different stores and restaurants.
Namba Parks leaves an impression. A good one. It's an oasis of green and peace and quiet in an otherwise vibrant city.

From Namba, we head in the direction of Den Den Town. It's a neighborhood that reminds us of Akihabara in Tokyo with all the electronic stores, anime, manga and cosplay. It doesn't take long before the streets are filled with colorful signs of stores. Every few hundred meters, there's a girl or boy standing in cosplay outfit. The stores keep amazing us... the things you can buy here?! Ranging from action figure dolls to playing cards to luna parks where you can try to catch a French fry as a key hanger. Yes... you read that right: one French fry as a key hanger. Or have you heard about pet cafés where you can have a cup of tea with a hedgehog? Or a duck?

Leaving the madness behind us, we continue north to the most famous spot of Osaka: Dotonbori Street. However, before arriving there, we pass through the Kuromon market where they sell lots of local fresh products that are used in the restaurants. Because it's already quite late when we pass through, most of the stalls are closed. Nevertheless, we can imagine an extreme amount of liveliness here in the mornings.

You can't really miss the street to our left that is Dotonbori. The number of tourists is overwhelming. As we make our way through the street, we have constantly have to move our attention from not hitting oncoming tourists, to the amazing and huge storefronts in the street. Most of them are restaurants and have an absolutely humongous sculpture of their food or anything other that attracts the eye hanging in front. Of course, there's the moving crab (actually, there are many).

Dotonbori is located next to a river and the bridges across are packed because of the nice views on the many advertisement boards. It feels like you're in a theme park. There even is a television screen so big that it almost covers the entire front of a building. And there's a dog appearing on it that seemingly sticks its head out of the screen.
Just on the other side of the bridge is the famous "running man" sign. One of the most renowned symbols of Osaka. It's not lid at this time and we're both starting to feel very hungry. Despite having food stalls all around us, we don't really feel like walking into the first restaurant we come by.

We still have to try ramen and the proper way to eat it. We leave the crowded area of Dotonbori behind us and try to find some better prices and calm in the neighboring area of Amerikamura. It turns out to be a long search for food. Not due to the lack of options, but rather the abondance of options! We enter a ramen place and are offered two seats at the counter.

Ramen is a quick meal in Japan, so it's not a fancy restaurant vibe kind of dinner. Having seen some videos online on how to eat this boiling noodle soup and the different types, we order something. Not really knowing if we'll like it or not.
A few minutes later, the bowl arrives and it's time to test out our slurping skills. We both try a couple of times. We both fail a considerable number of times. Every now and then there's a successful slurp but then we didn't really catch the technique on how we achieved it. From the chef's point of view or any Japanese I think we failed miserably.

With our T-shirts stained with a few drops of broth, we go one more time to the bridge in Dotonbori to see the running man sign illuminated. We take our pictures and head exhausted to the subway. Time to get to bed! 21000 steps later we fall down on our matrasses and close our eyes. Tomorrow is our last day...Læs mere